


sightless

by StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Badass Lin Beifong, Character Study, Introspection, Kinda, Loss of Bending Ability, when amon took away lin's bending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:01:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26006119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese/pseuds/StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese
Summary: Lin Beifong had been raised to see through the earth.Sure, she could see in the standard sense of the word– that is, with her eyes. But her mother had always told her not to rely on that.Lin, she would say, in that waspish way of hers,your eyes can lie to you. Theywilllie to you. But with your earth-sense, nobody and nothing can hide from you. I’m blind, but I see better than all the sighted fools out there. And you will, too.(A Lin Beifong character study during season one)
Relationships: Lin Beifong & Toph Beifong
Comments: 8
Kudos: 89





	sightless

**Author's Note:**

> posting this at a half hour to midnight which can't be a good idea  
> hopefully this is coherent lol

Lin Beifong had been raised to see through the earth.

Sure, she could see in the standard sense of the word– that is, with her eyes. But her mother had always told her not to rely on that. 

_Lin_ , she would say, in that waspish way of hers, _your eyes can lie to you. They_ will _lie to you. But with your earth-sense, nobody and nothing can hide from you. I’m blind, but I see better than all the sighted fools out there. And you will, too._

As Lin learned to walk, she also learned to see in ways nobody else could– to watch her mother when she was in another room, to use the vibrations in the ground to find a lost toy, to know where everyone in the house was at all times, just by pressing a bare knuckle to the ground. 

Sight– as in, sight with her eyes– became secondary. For a long time, Lin walked around barefoot and staring blankly, seemingly not registering what was going on in the world around her– at least, not with her eyes. She had stopped doing that after an incident with a confused but concerned neighbor who had assumed she was blind when he had tried getting her attention. Sometimes, she still had to concentrate in order to decode minute facial expressions, instead of simply deducing someone’s mood with their heartbeat. Apparently, in the cop world, that seen as “less professional”.

Lin’s skills were never as good as her mother’s sense, which had been learned out of necessity rather than interest. But it still made her the second-best earth-seer in the world, tied only with Su.

As Lin grew up, she stopped going around barefoot and started wearing shoes with retractable soles instead. But that only cut off most of her sense. Every time she brushed her hand over earth– whether it be rock, clay, dirt, or metal– she got feedback. It was helpful, when she was still a nobody beat cop chasing down petty thieves around Republic City.

She had come a long way since those days.

She eventually made chief of police, and her mother had been wholly unimpressed. 

There were tiny seeds of resentment, laid when Lin was a child, that bloomed that day.

She hadn’t spoken with her mother in nearly two decades. She wondered if Toph knew what was going on. She wondered if she would come help.

Probably not.

If Lin had been bending as soon as she could walk, Toph had been bending right out of the womb. Lin’s mother could not risk losing her bending. 

And that was partially why Amon was so terrifying.

He would certainly take Toph’s bending. She was too much of a threat to him to leave alone, even in her old age. A part of Lin was viciously proud of that.

Another part had been too resentful with her mother to manage much more than a mental shrug.

But now, as Lin waited to be taken before Amon, she felt strands of sympathy working their way inside that apathy. Her mother was an old woman. She could not lose her bending, not when it was her only means of seeing the world.

Lin, meanwhile, could handle it. She could handle it. She could handle it.

As the vehicle lurched to a stop, Lin took a deep breath. The guards hauled her up and carted her over to a large group of Equalists.

Lin was dragged in front of Amon, and when he turned to face her, Lin knew he was going to do it to her.

She had known since the beginning, to tell the truth. Since the _very_ beginning, when Amon’s abilities had first come to light, she had known. She was the chief of police. She would be wading in where the danger was thickest. The possibility that she would lose her bending was a strong one.

But Lin could afford to lose her bending in a way that her mother could not. That _Korra_ could not. 

Because, unlike them, Lin did not need her bending to feel whole.

She was the chief of police. She was the daughter of Toph Beifong. A large part of her identity was being able to bend, yes, but it did not encompass her.

Knowing it would happen and actually having it happen were two very different things, though.

It was raining. It was raining, and ridiculously, even though she had way bigger problems at the moment, the only thing Lin could think about was that water made it harder to see through the ground. Even with both her palms pressed to the rock, everything looked fuzzy.

“Tell me where the Avatar is,” Amon said, the very picture of poise, “and I’ll let you keep your bending.”

Lin could hear her mother’s voice in her ears. _You’re a Beifong. We do not move because some jerk tells us to. We stand strong. We do not yield. You come from the greatest earthbender in the world. Is a creep in a mask going to beat you? No!_

“I won't tell you anything, you monster,” Lin spat.

“Very well,” Amon said gravely, with that awful serenity. Calmly, methodically, he walked behind her and grasped the top of her head, tilting it back.

Lin closed her eyes and lifted her face. 

She was a Beifong. Beifongs did not back down.

She could feel his thumb on her forehead.

It wasn’t painful. Not physically. 

It was almost like a gentle pulling sensation, as if all of the blood in her body was being lightly tugged towards Amon, but only for a split second.

Then Lin was falling forwards, her armor suddenly heavier than it had ever felt before, the now-useless metal cords only weighing her down.

She hit the ground, and for the first time she could remember, the ground did not respond.

She had thought she would be ready.

She had been wrong.

It was worse than anything she had ever imagined.

The ground was hard and did not yield to her.

It did not map out the people around her. 

It did not show her where every building and tank and pebble was.

It was hard, and cold, and wet, and _Lin couldn’t see._

She couldn’t see.

She couldn’t see. 

She couldn’t see.

She couldn’t see.

Lin lay on the ground, face and both hands pressed against the rock, toes digging into the minuscule clefts, and felt sightless.

**Author's Note:**

> so anyway ive decided to stan lin beifong.
> 
> What did y'all think?


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